11/07/2008 Note: There was an error detected for the data cube, Statistical Region Sector ASGC Ed 2007 Digital Boundaries in MapInfo Interchange Format. This problem has been rectified and now contains the correct digital boundary file in MapInfo Interchange format.

Product Brief

The Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) is a hierarchical classification system of geographical areas and consists of a number of interrelated structures. It provides a common framework of statistical geography and enables the production of statistics which are comparable and can be spatially integrated.

This product, Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) Digital Boundaries, Australia2007(ABS cat. no. 1259.0.30.001), contains the digital boundaries current for the ASGC Edition 2007 (date of effect 1 July 2007). The digital boundaries are presented in MapInfo Interchange Format, and are based on the datum GDA94.

The ASGC covers Geographic Australia including the external territories of Cocos (Keeling) Islands & Christmas Island, but excluding all other external territories.

The product includes boundaries of Local Government Areas, Statistical Local Areas, Statistical Divisions, Statistical Subdivisions, States, Statistical Districts, Major Statistical Regions, Statistical Regions and Statistical Region Sectors, current at 1 July 2007. The digital boundaries are available only at one level of detail and align accurately with the digital base map data used by the ABS. These boundaries are intended for import and display in GIS and desktop mapping packages, and because of the high level of detail, they are not suitable for use in 'low-end' mapping packages such as those included in Excel and Lotus 123.

Note that it is vitally important to understand which edition of the ASGC has been applied to the statistical data which you are analysing. ABS data are generally disseminated on either the ASGC edition used for the collection & dissemination of Census data (2006) or the edition which was current when data was being collected.

Operating Environment

The digital boundary files are in MapInfo Interchange Format (.MID, .MIF) and ESRI Shapefile (.shp) format. MapInfo Interchange Format can be imported directly into MapInfo and other common Geographic Information Systems (GIS) or desk-top mapping packages. The .MID .MIF files are text format and can be edited and manipulated for import to less common GIS and CAD systems.

The .MID .MIF files cannot be used directly with viewing tools such as MapInfo ProViewer.

The digital boundary files have the datum specified as 116 (GDA94). Users of MapInfo 6.0 or later are able to load data sets based on GDA94 directly, without transformation. Earlier versions of MapInfo cannot interpret GDA94 correctly and there may be alignment problems between data sets based on this datum and other earlier datums.

All column headers show spatial unit type, spatial unit attribute and year of edition.

File Type

Attributes

Comments

SLA

STATE_CODE_2007

1 digit State/Territory code

SLA_MAINCODE_2007

9 digit Main Structure code

SLA_NAME_2007

SLA_5DIGITCODE_2007

5 digit SLA code

SLA_REGIONCODE_2007

9 digit SLA Region code

SSD

STATE_CODE_2007

1 digit State/Territory code

SSD_CODE_2007

5 digit Main Structure code

SSD_NAME_2007

SD

STATE_CODE_2007

1 digit State/Territory code

SD_CODE_2007

3 digit Main Structure code

SD_NAME_2007

STE

STATE_CODE_2007

1 digit State/Territory code

STATE_NAME_2007

LGA

STATE_CODE_2007

1 digit State/Territory code

LGA_CODE_2007

5 digit Local Government Area Structure code

LGA_NAME_2007

SDIST

SDIST_CODE_2007

4 digit Statistical District Structure code

SDIST_NAME_2007

SRS

STATE_CODE_2007

1 digit State/Territory code

SRS_CODE_2007

5 digit Statistical Region Structure code

SRS_NAME_2007

SR

STATE_CODE_2007

1 digit State/Territory code

SR_CODE_2007

4 digit Statistical Region Structure code

SR_NAME_2007

MSR

STATE_CODE_2007

1 digit State/Territory code

MSR_CODE_2007

2 digit Statistical Region Structure code

MSR_NAME_2007

Data Quality

The ASGC Edition 2007 digital boundaries are based upon the SLA boundaries of the ASGC Edition 2007. The higher level spatial units were then aggregated from ASGC Edition 2007 SLA level.

While the topological consistency of the data can be regarded as high there may be very small errors such as gaps, overlaps and bow-ties.

Metadata

Refer to the files 1259.0.30.001 Metadata Proforma and GDA94notes.pdf on this product.

Reference

Information regarding the underlying concepts of the Australian Standard Geographical Classification and its Structures may be found in the ABS publicationAustralian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC) 2007 (ABS Cat. No. 1216.0). A publication is produced for each edition of the ASGC and the publication for the ASGC Edition 2007 will be available from the end of September 2007. The Statistical Concepts Library maintained on the ABS Web site (www.abs.gov.au) is a useful reference to view certain editions of the publication.

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